This is Bruce.
If you tell anyone about our identities, we'll reveal all of your most secretive information in return.
Here is the link containing everything we have.
It can be shared to the public with a click of a button.
Https://drive.mw/privateB.SD.30OC

Dick felt his hands moisten with sweat while he waited for Bruce and Penguin to settle the problem. He peered over Bruce's shoulder as he, Bruce, and Selina sat on the living room couch at the manor, having just finished explaining everything that happened prior to now.

Ozzie 🐧

I did not intend on telling anyone about your identities as I am a man of integrity.

I understand the threat, however. I will not reveal your secrets as long as you do not reveal mine.

Ozzie 🐧 has blocked you

Dick flinched back as the bold letters flashed onto the screen. He stared at the words, familiar hurt that he knew he shouldn't be feeling settling in his chest. Then a large, childish pout appeared on his face, and Dick moaned, "aww, I wanted to be the one to block him! But he block me first!"

Bruce handed Dick the phone with a poker face while Selina laughed.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with. Oswald's a coward, he won't spill as long as we have that blackmail as a reminder," she said from besides them. "What is it that you're blackmailing him with, anyways?"

"Most of the blackmail was lists of crimes that could lead to other villains and criminals turning on him," Bruce explained. "The rest was information from Dick, actually. Dick knows where one of his home bases are, what his latest operations were, who he's been planning on allying with- basically a majority of his latest plans. Oswald shared a lot with Dick- more than he probably realized. In the end, everything we have over him is not worth leaking our identities for."

Dick suppressed a sigh. It was crazy to think that just earlier that day Penguin was calling him his friend, and then the next thing he knew, they were using each other's secrets against one another. He wished it hadn't come to this.

Bruce glanced at him worriedly. "You okay, buddy?"

Dick looked up at him and slowly nodded. Once he and Selina had come back to the manor, they waited until Bruce got back from work. The moment Bruce had walked through the threshold, Dick had burst into tears and came running towards the man in a hug. He explained everything and apologized and apologized until Bruce had to stop him and tell him it was okay.

Of course Bruce was upset, but... he was understanding about it, too. About being lied to, about their identities being revealed, about everything. Dick had expected it because... what could he say? It was Bruce. He could always trust Bruce. But when Dick actually let it sink in that he himself knew that Bruce would always be someone he could trust and count on and learn from... he burst into tears yet again.

The difference between him and Penguin was so great, and Dick was astounded that he hadn't seen it sooner. He was so grateful that he had Bruce to care for him. Ever since Bruce adopted him, he'd been through so much, and the man was always there. He might've been awkward at times, and not exactly the best at comforting, but he did his best and it truly did help Dick.

Dick had emotionally grown so much from his time with Bruce.

Noticing the far away look in the third grader's eyes, Bruce side hugged Dick and murmured, "it's all a learning process. I'm not mad; you know I'll always be on your side."

Dick knew that, and he was grateful for it.

Shortly, though, Bruce pulled out of the hug and glowered at Selina.

The female raised a brow. "What?"

"I trusted you to take care of Dick and you let him run off with Ivy," Bruce stated. "Not to mention, you've been in on a lot of Dick's schemes."

Selina raised her hands in defense. "Hey, turns out I'm suddenly weak for puppy dog eyes?"

Bruce exhaled and pinched the pinch of his nose while Dick cracked a smile. Then the boy mustered up the courage to ask, "Bruce, am I grounded from being Robin?"

The billionaire turned his attention back to him, his eyebrows quirked from surprise and confusion. "No, but... but I was beginning to think you didn't want to be Robin anymore. At least, I didn't think you were ready and wouldn't be for a while."

Dick gently shook his head. "I didn't want to be Robin anymore. Never again. But.. but I think I can still be a good hero. I just need a second chance..."

"Of course you can get a second chance. Even a third and fourth if you need it, Dick," Bruce said reassuringly. "What happened that day... it never made you a bad hero. And if you think you're ready to be Robin, I'm more than happy to let you join me again."

The raven haired child smiled. The sight was refreshing to both Bruce and Selina.

Bruce's face suddenly tightened despite the warm expression he received from the boy. "Dick, I need to tell you something."

Dick's smile fell faster than he did whenever a bully at school would trip him. With anxiety quickly flooding into his system, he asked, "what is it?"

"Tony Zucco," Bruce began.

Dick's heart stopped.

"After investigating for months, I finally have solid information about his whereabouts. I currently know his exact location, and I know where he'll be for the next few weeks," the man informed.

Dick's lips parted as his eyes began the sizes of saucers. He probably looked like a fish. "No way," he breathed.

Bruce nodded, watching Dick's reaction carefully.

Surprised and concerned, Selina commented, "Don't you think it's too soon for him to go out as Robin? I mean, after what happened last time, you'd think he'd want some time-"

"No," Dick interrupted, "I'm ready. I know it. I've waited a long time for this."

Selina scrunched her eyebrows and looked at Bruce.

"It's his choice. If he says he's ready, then it's final," the billionaire said.

Dick jumped up from the couch. "Let's go!"

Bruce went wide eyed. "You just got here. You already want to head out?"

Dick raised an eye brow. "Um, yeah? The sooner I can take him down, the better."

"You've had a long day, Dick. I think you need some time to organize your feelings and rest," Bruce suggested.

Maybe he should. He was rushing into things, he knew that. He'd just ended his friendship with Oswald, and now he was going to face the murderer of his parents. He should rest for tomorrow, both mentally and physically.

Because he'd probably struggle with feelings of anger and grief, thoughts of justice and revenge.

But revenge was something Penguin wanted Dick to go for. Justice was something Bruce wanted Dick to go for.

So he'd go for Justice.

- - - - - - - - -

The next day, Dick woke up with a headache.

He barely slept. He had been restless, tossing and turning ever couple of minutes, his thoughts consumed with how he'd face Tony Zucco.

Would Zucco recognize him? Would he taunt him again?

Would Dick stay calm and professional or would he let his rage control him?

"Good morning, Master Dick," Alfred greeted when Dick came downstairs quickly. "My, you're in quite the rush."

"Morning, Alf. Today's the big day, and I'm super ready for it," Dick explained. "Gonna get my suit."

"Ah, of course," said the butler. He watched as Dick zoomed by him to get to the Batcave.

The boy hurried down into the Batcave and grabbed his suit from the glass vault.

He froze in his tracks.

Then looked at the suit.

And let his fall out of his hand. His breathing quickly accelerated.

What was he doing? Was he seriously letting himself be Robin again? What if he let another civilian get hurt? Or worse? What if he messed everything up? He could never forgive himself. Another poor innocent person would be gone because of him. He'd be forced to see those teary eyes piercing back at his, the memory a reminder of his terrible failure-

No.

He'd trained for this. For months. By Batman himself. Bruce had faith in him so he needed to have faith in himself, too.

He was confident yesterday, and it was nice. He wanted to feel like that again. He deserved to after everything he's accomplished.

Yeah.

Because even though he's messed up a lot, he's also done a lot of good things.

Before the Joker, his first day had gone great. He'd stopped a bank robbery and helped out people around Gotham. And even just yesterday, he helped that gang out.

Well, his gang, technically.

Dick bent down to pick up the suit. He inspected it carefully, his thumb fondly running over the 'R' insignia.

He had become Robin to honor his parents memories and help others so that they didn't need to go through what he did. Like Batman. At first it was only to stop gangsters, but now he wanted to be a hero. Someone people could look up to.

Because he now knew that there were even worse people than mere gangsters. There were villains. Villains like Joker- and Penguin...

Dick held onto the suit more tightly.

He had to be strong. Not only for himself this time, but for others. For the people who needed saving out there.

If he could fight his demons and enemies, then others could see that they could, too.

Dick recalled the day he went to The Narrows. He felt like Gotham was overly toxic and needed someone to make it better. Gotham had Batman, but now they also had Robin. And Robin also wanted to make a change as well.

Yes, he would become Robin again so that he could take down Tony Zucco. Not only for himself but for the other families he hurt. For the message it all stood for.

Dick smiled with determination and went to change into his suit.

- - - - - - - -

Apparently Tony Zucco was on vacation.

At least, that's what it seemed like since the criminal was spending the next couple of weeks at a large, luxurious summer house. Why anyone would stay in Gotham for vacation was besides Dick.

"He has little to no guards, surprisingly," Batman said as they monitored the building with binoculars from the roof of a building.

"So... do we just break in or..?" Robin trailed off.

Batman out the binoculars away. "No. Let's knock."

Robin raised a brow beneath the mask but followed Batman's lead anyways. They got off the roof and approached the summer house.

After they knocked out the few guards that were there, Batman walked up to the front door and actually did knock.

A maid opened the door. She jumped upon noticing the masked vigilantes. She tried closing the door, but Batman held it open.

"We're here for Tony Zucco. Where is he?" Batman demanded.

The woman gave up and slowly pointed down one of the halls of the mansion.

Batman and Robin let themselves in and went to toward that directions.

"Is it just me or is this too easy?" Robin questioned.

"I agree," Batman said. "Keep your guard up."

They entered a large and spacious living room that rivaled the one at the manor. Sitting on the couch, sipping wine, was Tony Zucco.

And he was talking to a red headed female dressed... as Batman?

Batman stepped forward first. "What's going on here?"

The female, who seemed to be just a kid- maybe two or three years older than Robin- looked at them with her eyes widened. "Batman and Robin?"

"Damn it..." Zucco muttered under his breath. He got up from the couch and set down his glass of wine. He looked at the faces of all the heroes as he stood in the middle of them all, assessing the situation.

"Who are you?" Batman asked, his voice gravelly.

The girl stood firmly despite the hesitant look in her eyes. "I'm Batgirl."

"You have no place in here," The Dark Knight stated. "Leave."

Batgirl frowned. "No way! I came here to have Tony Zucco here arrested. I didn't know you'd be here, too. Took you forever, by the way. Anyways, I was here first so I get to be the one who arrests him."

Between the chatter, Tony attempted to slowly step away but Robin barked, "stay right there!"

Batman and Batgirl glared at him, making the criminal raise his hands in defense.

"This isn't a game," Batman said to the redhead, his words sharp and disapproving.

"And I'm not playing," Batgirl argued. "I can handle this. I-"

"I don't care if you think you can fight or whatnot," Batman interrupted curtly. The warning in his voice made everyone else in the room shiver. "You'll only get hurt and in the way. Go. I won't ask again."

Batgirl inhaled and opened her mouth to talk.

Tony Zucco waited to see what would happen.

She closed her mouth and clenched her fist. Without a word, she quickly stormed out, the stomping of her shoes the only sound in the building.

Tony snarled. "Damn, I really thought I was about to see you all fight."

Batman ignored that comment and took out a pair of handcuffs from his utility belt. "Tony Zucco, you're under arrest for the numerous murders committed under your name." He walked up to the man and put a rough hand on him.

Robin watched, breathless. Now that he was seeing Tony again, the real Tony, he felt like all the air had left the room. It was actually happening. He was being arrested!

The man gave an agitated growl and pulled away. "First the circus kid, then the psycho woman, and now the heroes? Well, it's a good thing I'm prepared."

Robin cocked his head to the side in confusion, staring at the murderer of his parents, while Batman sharply inhaled and whirled around as if he already understood what was happening.

Tony Zucco snapped his fingers. Dozens of men burst out of the nearby rooms.

Robin quickly took out his batarangs. He knew it had been to easy. No, no, no, this couldn't be happening. Not when they were so close to arresting Zucco.

The criminal let out an unpleasant cackle. "I'll leave you to-" he gestured to the goons "-that. You can thank Riddler for the heads up and henchmen, by the way. See ya!"

The Dynamic Duo wasn't given even a heartbeat to respond. All the men came hurdling themselves at them.

The two heroes got in position quickly and fought. Robin threw his batarangs and best kicks while Batman made sure to give his most painful punches.

"He's gonna get away!" Robin cried to Batman as they became overwhelmed.

Batman frustratedly growled and literally threw a henchman at a crowd of others.

But during the chaotic fighting, Tony Zucco slipped away and disappeared.

- - - - - - - -

"Batman, please! We have to go after him! Look around the city- see if anyone saw what direction he went!" Robin cried after they'd checked the whole building to see if Zucco was hiding anywhere. He pulled at his hair at the thought of missing another opportunity to catch him. He was just a regular man! Why was this so hard!

Batman put a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Robin, calm down."

The boy pulled his hands out of his raven locks and willed himself to steady his breathing. He waited for Batman to explain.

Batman took something out of his utility belt. "Look," he said as he showed it to his partner, "this is a tracker. I put one on Zucco when I touched him earlier."

Robin exhaled deeply in relief. Bruce was always one step ahead.

"So, we're gonna go after him right now, right?" He insisted hurriedly.

Batman stayed quiet for a few moments. "He mentioned Riddler," he brought up quietly.

"What?"

"Zucco said that it was Riddler who warned him about us and gave him henchmen. It's unusual, isn't it? For a big villain like Riddler and a thug like Tony Zucco to work together?" Batman reasoned.

Robin frowned. "Yeah.. it's weird."

"I think we should observe Zucco's movement for a while and see what his relationship with Riddler is," Batman suggested. Before Robin could retort, the man continued, "Edward and Oswald are normally allies, and if it was Oswald who asked Edward to aid Zucco, then they might be up to something involving you. Most likely out of spite. For your safety, let's wait just a little longer." His voice wasn't authoritative but rather like he was suggesting it and was open to Robin giving his opinion.

A protest was on the tip of Robin's tongue, but he kept his lips firmly closed and gave a nod. Batman wouldn't give up an opportunity to help him catch Zucco for no reason. It was for Dick's safety. Besides, they still had the tracker on the criminal, so they could go after him whenever they wanted to. Plus, Batman always emphasized on the importance of patience, and Robin wanted to prove that he could do just that.

"Okay," Robin said. They left the vacation house with the knocked out goons on the floor.

- - - - - - - -

Dick lied on his bed as he inspected the Rubik's cube Edward had given him for his birthday.

Edward had seemed like a nice guy. A little weird with all those riddles, but nice.

So did he really help out the murderer of his parents? There was no way he didn't know Tony Zucco's relationship with Dick.

The nine-year-old started to twist and turn the pieces of the Rubik's cube. He was so close to solving this darn thing. He played with it when his phone died, or when he was bored. He brought the cube with him to school sometimes, and there were other people would help him, too. Shelly was especially good at it; she'd single handedly gotten almost half of the cube a solid color.

What did she say to do again? Work on the yellow corners? He thought. He continued to move around the third layer corner pieces. As he did that, he tried thinking of reasons that Edward would betray him.

Then again, it wasn't really betrayal since Dick was never actually close to the man. Sure, he went to his birthday party, but that was mainly for the cake, right?

Anyways, he was just a villain. Dick shouldn't be surprised this happened. Not that he lost faith in all villains. After all, Ivy was still on his side.

For now.

The next hour was spent sitting in bed, trying to solve the cube, in a bad mood. If Dick couldn't have Zucco behind bars, could he at least be given the satisfaction of solving some dang puzzle?!

When he had only two pieces out of place, he gave up in the form of a tantrum. He jumped off his bed and stalked to the stairs. The boy peered down the steps, and threw the cube swiftly.

The object went bouncing down the stairs, a few of the colors moving out of place along the way. It hit the floor with a clang.

The Dick's surprise, it made a clicking sound and the colors of the pieces momentarily glowed their respective colors.

Alfred's voice from across the hall called out, "is everything alright over there, Master Dick?"

The boy went wide eyed. "Uh-huh! Yeah, yeah, everything's fine! I just dropped something!" He went running down the stairs, snatched the cube, and sped back into his room.

The Rubik's cube was solved.

By accident.

Dick supposed he should feel lucky, but it was also annoying because after all the time he spent working on it, it was gravity and the stairs who really got to do the final act.

But getting back on topic, that wasn't why Dick was surprised and intrigued.

It was because in between the layers of the cube, there was a small, hidden compartment that could be revealed by pulling the left and right side. It wasn't like that before, so that meant it was only opened by solving the riddle.

Dick noticed a slip of paper in the compartment. He squeezed his finger in there and grabbed it.

He expected something like, "good job!" but instead, he got a riddle.

Of course. He should've guessed.

It read: what has a head, a tail, is brown, and has no legs?

"Huh?" Dick said to himself. How was he supposed to know this?

He flipped the paper where there was another riddle. This one read:

I'm a killing machine used again and again;

I bend a little, but way less than my friend;

For many years I was number one,

But I've been replaced by my modern son.

What am I? And who am I used by?

Dick scratched his head. He was never really good with riddles. Bruce probably would be, though, and he'd want Dick to tell him about this, so he got up from his bed again and went to the man's office.

He peeked his head through the door. "Bruce?"

Bruce looked away from his computer screen and glanced at Dick. "Hey, what's up?"

Dick gave him the slip of paper. "I found this in the Rubik's cube Riddler gave me. It looks like riddles. What do you think they mean?"

Bruce observed the paper quietly. "You just solved the cube?"

"Yeah," Dick answered. "But to be honest it was by accident."

The billionaire read the front of the paper first. "Penny," he whispered.

"What?"

Bruce looked at him, his eyes filled with thought. "The answer is a penny. As much as Riddler loves riddles, I don't think he'd put these in the Rubik's cube just for fun. He's trying to tell you something."

"Oh. But these were given to me on my birthday, so could the message be old already?" Dick asked.

"That's the question," Bruce said. "Along with what they mean."

Dick put a finger on his temple. "So, a penny... does the penny symbolize something in Gotham?"

"The first person I thought of was Two Face," Bruce informed. "How he uses the penny to make his choices. I don't see how he has anything to do with this, though."

The third grader's eyebrows furrowed. "Remember the gang I told you about?"

Bruce nodded. "The gang that you're now supposedly the boss of?" He added with a hint of amusement.

An embarrassed smile formed on Dick's lips. "Yeah. Well, remember, the gang we were fighting was Two Face's gang. Not to mention that my- erm- the gang I was with used to work for Two Face. Maybe it connects?"

"I'm sure it does," Bruce agreed. "But we don't know whether this is information regarding past or future events, nor if it's a warning or trap."

"Well, Edward and I were sorta friends back when it was my birthday, so I would say it's a warning that was supposed to be helpful," Dick reasoned.

Bruce hummed in response and flipped the paper. He read it to himself while Dick waited.

"I'm not too sure about this one," Bruce admitted. "It's definitely about a weapon, though."

"Yeah," Dick mumbled. "That one kinda makes me nervous."

"I'll try to figure it out more later, but for now, let's discuss this gang of yours," Bruce insisted. He gestured a hand towards another chair in the room. "Sit down."

The boy complied. Before Bruce could begin he blurted, "they're not bad. Really. I mean it. They're just teenagers."

Bruce offered a small smile. "I know, Dick. You already explained to me before, and I agree. There's lots of places that have gangs who only form so that they can get enough money to make it by. I'm proud of you for getting them to quit threatening people and start changing their ways. So here's how we can help them and how they can also help themself..."

They spoke for the next hour on how they'd help that gang and many others.

Meanwhile, in a dark, eerily quiet, and empty house, a blonde man spoke to his daughter.

"Artemis," he said, his voice powerful in the quiet home, a speck of excitement evident in his tone, "I think now is the perfect opportunity for you to prove your worth to me and everyone who will be watching."

There was a sentence where I considered putting, "Dick's smile fell faster than his parents on that fateful day in the circus", but decided "nahh". Pfft-